This E is for Elephant craft is a fun way for preschoolers and kindergarteners to learn the letter E. Your kids will love coloring and assembling the letter E craft!
Mastering the alphabet is one of the foundations your kids learn in preschool and kindergarten. One of my preschooler’s favorite way of learning the letters is through hands-on activities.
Today, we worked on the letter E! What animal starts with the letter E? You guessed it, E is for Elephant! What better way to learn the letter e than with the largest land animal on the planet?
With the free E is for Elephant template, this animal letter craft is easy to do. All your kid has to do is color the different parts of the elephant, cut them out, and then assemble them to form the elephant.
This letter E craft template also comes with a word practicing activity where the kids can learn how to write the word “Elephant.”
How to Make an E is for Elephant Craft
Supplies:
- Free E is for Elephant template
- Scissors
- Crayons or colored pencils
- Glue
- Pencil
- Construction paper or cardstock
Instructions:
1. Color the letter E outline, the nose, and the ear with a color of your choice. We went with the gray, but elephants usually appear to be the same color as the soil where they live. And yes, pink elephants do exist!
2. Have your kid trace the word “Elephant” at the bottom of the page for fine motor and pencil skill practice. Say the word out loud together while they trace it. Hearing the sound and forming the letters at the same time builds a stronger connection than doing either one alone.
3. Cut out the template pieces. For preschoolers mastering scissor skills, cutting along the dotted lines may be easier because there are fewer sharp corners and curves.
4. Glue the letter E outline on a piece of colored paper. You may want to use cardstock to make the letter E craft more durable. Another option is to use construction paper and insert all your animal alphabet crafts into clear sheet protectors when you finish.
If you’re working through a letter a week, check out the full A to Z animal letter craft set in the shop, so you’re not hunting for a new template every Monday.
5. Glue the nose on the right side of the top horizontal line of the letter E.
6. Glue the ear on the top left corner of the letter E cutout.
7. Glue the eye in between the nose and the ear.
You are done with the E is for Elephant craft! Isn’t the elephant adorable?
You can display the finished letter E craft on the wall in the homeschool room or classroom. As mentioned above, you can also put them in a binder and make an Animal Alphabet book!
Practice the Letter E Sound While You Craft
While your kid colors, say the short E sound out loud together: /ĕ/ /ĕ/ elephant. Repeating it with their hands busy tends to stick better than drilling it off a flashcard.
Ask them what sound they hear first in “elephant.” Then try a few more short E words: egg, elbow, exit, empty.
If your kid points out that “eagle” and “eat” sound different, they’re right, and that’s a good moment to mention the letter E has two jobs. Most preschoolers learn the letter name well before the sound. Both count.
What Animals Start With the Letter E?
If your kid wants a different animal for the letter E, these are the ones preschoolers usually recognize:
Bullet list:
- Elephant
- Eagle
- Emu
- Earthworm
- Eel
- Egret
- Elk
- Echidna
The elephant is the easiest one to build out of a capital E. The top arm turns into the trunk, and the middle arm holds the ear. Before you tell them, let your kid look at the letter and guess which of the other animals they could make.
Elephant Facts to Talk About While You Color
While the kids color, here are some fun facts to share with them:
- An elephant’s trunk has roughly 40,000 muscles. Your kid’s entire body has around 600. That’s how the same trunk can tear a branch off a tree and then pick up one peanut.
- Those big ears work like a radiator. Blood runs through vessels close to the surface and cools down as the elephant flaps them.
- Elephants pick up low rumbles through their feet. Sound travels through the ground, and they can feel another herd from miles away.
- Elephant legs are built like columns, stacked straight under the body to carry the weight. It’s also why elephants can’t jump.
Ask your kid which fact they want to tell someone at dinner. That’s usually the one they’ll remember.
Tips for Preschoolers and Younger Crafters
This craft works best for ages 3 to 6. Older kids can run the whole thing start to finish. Here’s what helps the little ones:
- Pre-cut for three-year-olds. Let them color and glue, and handle the scissors yourself. Cutting curves is a fine motor skill that usually shows up closer to four.
- Use a glue stick, not liquid glue. Liquid glue soaks through printer paper and warps the pieces while they dry.
- Print on cardstock if you’re hanging it up. Regular paper curls at the edges within a week or two on a wall.
- If the ear keeps sliding, press and count to ten. Kids move on to the next piece before the glue grabs, and then everything shifts.
- Color before cutting. Coloring a small cut-out piece is much harder than coloring it while it’s still attached to the page.
Get All 26 Animal Letter Crafts
If the elephant went over well and you want the rest of the alphabet, I put all 26 animal letter crafts into one printable set. Same format as this one: color, cut, assemble, with word tracing on every page.
Alphabet Animal Crafts
33 pages · Ages 3-6 · PDF · US Letter & A4
All 26 animal letter crafts to color, cut, and assemble, with word tracing on each page. Print it as many times as you need for your own family or classroom.
★★★★★ 5.0 from 5 reviews
If your kid wants to keep going on this letter, there are plenty more letter E crafts and activities to work through, including an egg craft and a letter E in Spanish. And if the elephant is the real draw here, this paper elephant craft uses a different template and makes a good follow-up.
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